Transportation
$2 Congestion Fee When Parking In Downtown Chicago
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants to use congestion fees to help fund a new rail station and the city's first bus rapid transit line. Anyone parking in a downtown lot will be required to pay an additional $2 on top of the existing parking fee.
Partisanship Stalls Infrastructure Investment, Says Blumenauer
Congressional support for transportation and infrastructure projects has traditionally been bipartisan. In an interview, Rep. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon discusses how political tantrums in Congress may handicap the US in the long run.
What Would Happen If All Public Transportation Stopped?
The Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) released its 2011 Urban Mobility Report, which shows how many additional hours in traffic each commuter would be subject to if public transportation were discontinued.
Solyndra, Moneyball, and Lessons for Planning
The Los Angeles Times recently had a story about the collapse of Solyndra – the once heralded poster-child of the Obama administration’s green jobs plan. A big part of Solyndra’s demise was due to the rapidly falling price of their competitors’ solar panels. In 2008, the cost of solar panels was a bit over $4 for each watt generated. Solyndr
My Future City is Houston?
The BMW Guggenheim Lab has released an online urban planning game called "Urbanology," which asks a serious of questions to determine the type of city you think is the future.
Florida Found Most Dangerous Place for Pedestrians
Four Florida metropolitan areas recently ranked as the most dangerous places for pedestrians, according to a survey by Transportation America.
Will Postcarbon Cities be More Kid-Friendly?
The post-carbon city will require dramatically different planning. Why not plan them with children in mind, writes Jason McLennan?
Most Successful Bus Rapid Transit Stalls Out
Bogota, Columbia's TransMilenio bus rapid transit system has been widely praised and imitated around the world. However, many consider the successful bus system to be suffering from its own success.
Santa Monica's Ambitious Plan For 'No Net New Car Trips'
Beachside Santa Monica recently launched an ambitious Land Use and Circulation Element, which will balance growth, neighborhoods, and traffic. The plan has received accolades, and the city has become a model for consensus-based planning.
California Law Doesn't Stop Sprawl
A draft report from San Diego reveals that California's SB 375 law, which passed in 2008, was ineffective in reducing sprawl in the long term, Ethan Elkind writes for the UCLA UC Berkeley Legal Planet blog.
Building Roads to Cure Congestion Is an Exercise in Futility
University of Toronto professors say that building more roads just encourages more driving. Building transit doesn't help reduce congestion either, though it still maximizes the value of the transportation system.
U.S. Builds Roads That Kill Pedestrians
A new report from Transportation for America says that more than half of pedestrian fatalities happen on arterial roads that lack ped-friendly design - and therefore are preventable.
Philadelphia Leads the Largest Cities in America for Bicycle Mode Share
A new report from The Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia shows that Philadelphia's bicycle mode share is more than double that of Chicago's (the big city with the second-greatest share).
Budget Cuts Take Bite Out of Urban Agenda
CNN is reporting on the budget cuts for 2011, many of which will affect America's cities, infrastructure and vulnerable populations.
Labeling the Gas Tax
The gas tax should be viewed as that, a tax, and anything else is fundamentally wrong, writes Alex Marshall.
More Techno-Travelers on Transit - Unless It's Crowded
The Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development made over 16,000 observations of portable tech usage on airplains, trains, and buses. Their findings show that there is a increase of tech use on transit, but usage is reliant on users having space.
New Designs Add Sails to Hybrid Ferries
Hybrid solar/diesel ferries have been plying the waters for some time now, but now a number of new technologies are being implemented, including one of the very oldest - sails.
Energy Efficiency is about Location, Location, Location
A new peer reviewed study reveals that housing located in compact, transit-oriented and location efficient developments are more likely to consume less energy than developments in low density suburban areas.
Preserving Affordability As Atlanta's BeltLine Takes Off
The Atlanta BeltLine brings much promise to the city of Atlanta, but will elevated housing costs be an unwelcome addition? Atlanta is looking to a community land trust to preserve affordability for the long-term near this new asset.
Let's Be Smart About Intelligent Cities
"Intelligent cities" is picking up steam as the new buzzword in planning and a potentially game-changing way of using data to drive decisions. But we need to be sure we don't lose the human intelligence in planning.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
City of Albany
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research
